Work Text:
Something was wrong with Jiujiu and it was all Wei Wuxian’s fault. That was all Jin Ling had managed to figure out so far, but, then again, he’d only arrived at Lotus Pier not even half a shi ago.
It was an official visit—as any visit was now that Jin Ling was Sect Leader and didn’t accidentally end up here or sneak inside—so there had been a proper welcome in the Sword Hall even if he was only here on a personal visit and without full retinue.
Jiujiu had looked stressed. Tired. He clearly didn’t want to advertise it with how he was dressed so well, his collars crisp and belt tight. He was wearing five full layers and the crown he wore when he really wanted to make his position as Jiang Sect Leader forefront. Such as when dealing with Sect Leader Yao or at conferences or when he’d been tearing through Jin Guangyao’s supporters at Lanling when Jin Ling had first taken his position.
Jin Ling might have taken offense if he hadn't seen the pinched corners of Jiujiu’s eyes or the way his shoulders minutely dropped when Jin Ling walked in or the way his face would, every so often, go pale and he’d take a long sip of tea.
Tea which Wei Wuxian kept unobtrusively refilling every time Jiujiu set the cup down. He did no more than wave at Jin Ling in greeting then wince and turn apologetically to Jiujiu when Jiujiu glared at him.
It had actually reminded Jin Ling a lot of how things were when Wei Wuxian first found himself dragged back to Lotus Pier after Jiujiu had heard from Jin Ling—who had heard from Lan Jingyi—about Wei Wuxian leaving Hanguang-jun at Cloud Recesses and going out to travel the world on his own.
Jin Ling had been the one to drag him back, of course, because Jiujiu never would, and Wei Wuxian had tried to act small and unobtrusive and Jiujiu had just gotten grumpier and grumpier until Wei Wuxian had been caught trying to sneak out one night by the guards and Jiujiu had snapped.
Jin Ling hadn’t been there when it happened and none of the disciples would mention it in anything more than the abstract, so that was as much as Jin Ling knew, but, afterwards, Wei Wuxian had taken up space again and smiled and laughed and sat next to Jiujiu and Jiujiu had looked the normal kind of grumpy while Wei Wuxian ribbed him and Jin Ling noticed that the space to his right that had always seemed empty before now seemed full.
That had only been three months ago when Jiujiu and Wei Wuxian had visited him in Lanling. And he’d had no news of any fights or issues since.
What could have possibly happened in the meanwhile?
Jin Ling glared down at Wei Wuxian who laughed nervously up at him.
“Jiujiu is what ?” he asked in sheer disbelief.
“Aiya, Jin Ling, don’t you want a little biaodi or biaomei to play with and tease?” Wei Wuxian asked. “I promise, if they take after your Jiujiu, they’re so fun to poke at when they’re grumpy!”
Jin Ling was going to kill him.
He was going to kill him and he would be the one after to successfully summon and destroy his spirit.
“What did you do to Jiujiu, Wei Wuxian!” he argued through gritted teeth. Wei Wuxian’s eyes lit up and Jin Ling immediately knew he’d asked the wrong question.
“Well, you see, Jin Ling, when a daddy and a daddy—”
Jin Ling drew Suihua and slashed the sword down where Wei Wuxian was sitting just as the man rolled out of the way. “One more word and I won’t miss next time!” he shouted. How dare Wei Wuxian talk about those things! How dare he do them! How dare he look at his Jiujiu and—and—AND!!!
Jin Ling would drag him out onto the training field and have him drawn and quartered. He was sure the Jiang disciples would gladly help him.
Wei Wuxian mimed locking his lips and throwing away the key, though he couldn’t quite hide the laughter bursting at his seams.
Jin Ling glared at him but put Suihua away and they both sat back down at their meal. The meal Jiujiu would not join them for. Because he ate smaller meals throughout the day and heavy smells made him sick.
Because he was pregnant.
Because Wei Wuxian had AND ed him.
Jin Ling glared down at his bowl of rice, stuffed to overflowing with his favorite foods that Wei Wuxian kept piling in it, and set his chopsticks down.
Jin Ling didn’t want to think about this in the abstract let alone know the specifics. Jiujiu was his Jiujiu, the man who had helped raise him. He was strict and serious but he was kind and would do anything for the people he cared about. In his whole life, Jin Ling couldn’t think of a single time Jiujiu had acted like the other Jin boys who wagged their tongues about this female disciple or that maid or such-and-such famous song girl they were saving up money to see. Just like he’d never seen him act like those minor sect leaders’ daughters who asked for help in their archery while dressed in silks so fine and sleeves so wide they wouldn’t be able to safely hold a bow let alone use it. Or the merchants’ daughters who threw flowers and giggled at each other from behind fans. Jiujiu was above all of that nonsense. He hadn’t even pointed pretty girls out to Jin Ling before, like Wei Wuxian did. When Wei Wuxian did it, Jiujiu even told him to shut up!
Wei Wuxian was clearly behind this.
Jin Ling would take Wei Wuxian and boil him down into Jiujiu’s congee—he ate congee and berries and citrus throughout the day now, instead of breakfast and lunch, apparently, because spicy food was forbidden and slightly sour food helped the nausea, or so Wei Wuxian claimed—and feed it to Jiujiu.
Then he could join Jiujiu for a meal instead of eating all of Jin Ling’s favorites with Wei Wuxian because the smell of the food made his Jiujiu sick.
“We’ll eat together at dinner,” Wei Wuxian had promised at Jin Ling’s initial disapproval when Wei Wuxian had sat down to eat lunch with him without waiting for Jiujiu. “And once he’s past this part of his pregnancy we’ll be able to eat together all the time. Right now, he has a sensitive nose and stomach, though, especially in the first part of the day.”
And that was how Jin Ling had found out Wei Wuxian, that bastard, had gotten his Jiujiu pregnant.
Jiujiu wasn’t training the disciples in swordsmanship or archery anymore. Apparently it was deemed prudent to keep a pregnant sect leader away from possible accidents with sharp objects.
Jin Ling sat with him for a while in his office as he went back and forth between cursing people out while reading their letters and breathing and meditating because, apparently, strong emotions and bad words and images could affect the baby.
Jin Ling knew better than to offer to help. Jiujiu had told him already that it would be seen as a conflict of interest to the other person, even if Jin Ling was his nephew, for an uninvolved Sect Leader to see their communication.
After drinking through an entire pot of his own tea and refilling Jiujiu’s jujube tea twice, Jiujiu told him to go out and do something fun so he could take a nap.
A nap.
In the middle of the day.
Jin Ling left gobsmacked, but when he tried to ask the head disciple, Ling Bai, about it, he just got silenced. “They can’t announce it yet, it’s too early,” he explained with a smile, “so we’re all pretending we don’t know.”
Oh no.
Jin Ling had planned on the disciples helping him slaughter Wei Wuxian, but Ling Bai seemed excited and happy.
If he was going to do this himself, he might have to go back to Lanling and get more Immortal Binding rope. Wei Wuxian was tricky, so what Jin Ling had on his person for impromptu night hunts probably wouldn’t be enough to corner him. If he had the actual support of the Jiang disciples on top of that, clearly they wouldn’t give Jin Ling access to their own supplies.
He’d have to figure out how to keep Wei Wuxian from whistling once he was tied up, though. Feed him something chewy and sticky first? Tangyuan with a filling that would glue his teeth together? Some type of candy?
Jin Ling left Lotus Pier to wander the market, looking for ideas. A woman walked by with a baby tied to her back and a basket filled with greens and a lotus root hanging from her arm. She stopped at a stall with woven blankets and rubbed one between her fingers.
“Aiya, Popo,” she said to the old woman at the stall, “my sister just had her first child so our mother is bringing the baby furniture and supplies over. Don’t you have any more of that very soft and warm fabric from last time? I used it with my Bao’er all through spring.”
“That was a wool from a Qiang trader. It’s long sold out and who’s to say if they’re coming back,” the old woman said as she pulled out a blanket and held it out. “It’s summer now. You don’t want to risk too much heat with a heavy blanket anyway. This hemp blanket will protect from evil winds without overheating.”
Jin Ling frowned and walked away from the stall with hard candies and continued down the path. He would have to talk to Tailaolao about what they would need to prepare. And he’d commission a big pure gold and cinnabar longevity lock for the child’s one month celebration. After all, if anyone knew gold, it was Lanling Jin.
He thought of his Jiujiu holding a fat baby or helping it with its first steps and remembered when Jiujiu helped him learn how to shoot down kites and the soft little smile he started hiding when Jin Ling was old enough to start going out on his own.
It would probably be good for Jiujiu.
And people would stop bothering him about an heir for the sect.
Jin Ling stopped again at a stall with children’s toys and remembered the way he’d teased Lan Sizhui about the grass butterfly he had once picked up while they were traveling together in Tangzhou. Lan Jingyi had jumped in to protect him and it had been the first time Jin Ling had seen cousins of an age doing that. Jin Chan had only ever used his lackeys to beat him up, after all.
Picking up a colorful pinwheel, Jin Ling blew at it and watched it spin. He’d have to make sure his new cousin wasn’t taught wrong things by Wei Wuxian behind Jiujiu’s back. It would be his turn to protect them. For Jiujiu.
Maybe he could try to recreate the Lan silencing spell with a talisman. Wei Wuxian could probably make one for him without even realizing he was sealing his own end. Then, when he was all tied up and silenced, Jin Ling could kill him with a thousand cuts. Or more. One for each bit of suffering and indignity he was putting Jiujiu through.
Speaking of indignity, THEY WEREN’T EVEN MARRIED!
Jin Ling was going to castrate Wei Wuxian.
As promised, they did eat dinner together. Wei Wuxian kept putting chunks of flaky steamed fish and stir fried greens in Jiujiu’s rice bowl—even more than the both of them put in Jin Ling’s bowl—and Jiujiu grumbled but ate each piece.
Every so often he’d reach out to put a piece in Wei Wuxian’s bowl and Wei Wuxian would act like he’d been given the most precious of spiritual treasures or the purest mutton fat jade until Jiang Cheng grit his teeth in annoyance and ate it right out of his bowl.
It was, quite honestly, disgusting.
It also wasn’t until towards the end of the meal that Jin Ling realized that not only had the food been not spicy, but there hadn’t even been chili oil on the table.
He blinked in confusion.
Spicy food wasn’t traditional to Lanling so Jin Ling didn’t much need it to enjoy a meal, but everyone in Yunmeng liked spicy foods. Jiujiu especially liked it, even enjoying the mala more common to Meishan, saying it reminded him of when he was younger and would visit Tailaolao. He understood Jiujiu couldn’t eat it now, but Wei Wuxian was even worse than Jiujiu. Jin Ling still had nightmares of that spicy congee from Yi City. He hadn’t been poisoned enough to have to eat it, but he’d helped with cooking and the fumes from the spice had threatened to blind him. Eating it had nearly killed everyone else. Some seemed like they would’ve been happier to have remained poisoned after that first bite.
Speaking of poison…was there a hidden container of chili oil on the table somewhere he could lace?
Jiujiu eyed him knowingly as he checked the few pots on the table.
“So long as I can’t have any, he can’t have any,” he said imperiously. “He knows well enough what he did.”
Wei Wuxian gave a short laugh. “It’s still better than Gusu food, so fine fine,” he said with a nod. “Jin Ling knows what I did, too, so—”
Jiujiu slammed his fist down on the table. “What did you tell him, Wei Wuxian?” he demanded and Jin Ling blanched at Wei Wuxian’s smile showing up once more.
“Nothing!” Jin Ling immediately responded. “He told me nothing and I don’t want to hear any more than that!” He plugged his ears. “Lalalalala! I can’t hear!”
“Wait!” Wei Wuxian cried out between laughter and threw his arms up to shield himself as Jiang Cheng started hitting him with his seat cushion. “Jiang Cheng! I didn’t-! It’s not good for the baby!”
Jiujiu froze, arms raised, ready to rain further blows down then huffed and dropped the pillow and sat back down. He cleared his throat then returned to his tea as if the outburst had never happened.
Wei Wuxian leaned over to Jin Ling and whispered, “I’m the baby,” then cackled as he ran out the door.
“I’ll leave you two to spend some time together,” he said with a grin and a wink before shutting the door behind him.
He peeked through the open window to add, “Jin Ling, make sure your Jiujiu stays warm,” then reached in to grab the shutters and pull them shut.
Jin Ling turned to his Jiujiu only to watch the man’s eyebrows twitch in annoyance as his grip on his teacup tightened.
“Ignore him,” he said after a moment as he set the cup down.
Jin Ling immediately refilled it then refilled his own.
“So you know, then?” Jiujiu asked once he’d set the pot back down.
Jin Ling felt his face pinch, but eventually nodded. “Jiujiu, is it really okay? How did this even happen?”
Jiujiu hummed and brought a hand up to rest against his stomach, over his lower dantian. “As to how, that idiot’s still got a couple theories, but I’m perfectly fine. The Jiang Sect isn’t without trained doctors.”
Jin Ling chewed on his lip until Jiujiu sighed and told him to just spit it out.
“But what about at the end?” he asked. “When the baby needs to come out?”
Jiujiu frowned. “Is that any of your business, huh?” he asked as he reached out and shoved at Jin Ling’s head. “You think I need you to worry for me? I told you I am fine. I told you there are doctors. That is all a brat like you needs to know!”
“Jiujiu!” Jin Ling pouted as he shoved at and tried to escape the hand. “I’m not just a kid anymore! I’m even a Sect Leader, like you.”
Jiujiu scoffed. “You’ll always be a brat to me. Now, what has a Sect Leader running all the way to Yunmeng from Lanling without his retinue, huh?”
Jin Ling glared up at him then turned to his tea. “Just thought I’d make sure my old old Jiujiu hadn’t fallen and broken his hip,” he muttered into the porcelain.
As if he’d ever admit to any more.
Jin Ling wouldn’t have thought that after taking a mid-afternoon nap his Jiujiu would go to bed during haishi like some sort of Lan. Yet, shortly after their shared tea, he excused Jin Ling to his quarters and said they would meet again in the morning then turned towards his personal quarters.
Jin Ling was nowhere near ready to sleep, so he used the time to first hunt down Wei Wuxian to see if he could beat the man up any—maybe just nick him in the jugular in a spar, if he was considering making it look like an accident rather than a full-on execution. The man was nowhere to be found, however, and Jin Ling had learned by now that a Wei Wuxian who didn’t want to be found, wouldn’t be. He’d struggled enough before serendipity had landed the man in Lanling where Jin Ling had been able to drag him here.
He ran through his forms on the empty training grounds, however, then walked along the docks before slipping quietly past Jiujiu’s quarters where a lamp was lit and the doors looking out on the lake were open.
Jin Ling paused.
Jiujiu was sitting in the doorway in his inner robes as Wei Wuxian came up and wrapped a blanket around him before sitting next to him.
“Leave it on,” Wei Wuxian’s voice traveled well enough on the night air under the croak of frogs and singing of crickets.
“It’s summer,” Jiujiu responded in disgust. “I’m sticky.”
“The wind’s picking up,” Wei Wuxian said as he pulled the blanket closed around him.
“A storm’s coming in,” Jiujiu agreed as he shrugged off Wei Wuxian’s hold on the blanket but kept it on.
“Need me to sleep in the bed with you so you don’t get scared?”
“I was not scared!” Jiujiu exclaimed before turning away with a scoff. “You’re the one who came sneaking in because you were cold.” The next words he spoke lowly and Jin Ling had to strain even his cultivation-enhanced senses to pick up the muttered, “Besides, what kind of idiot needs an invitation to his own bed?”
Wei Wuxian leaned his weight along Jiang Cheng’s back as Jin Ling gagged and strongly considered just getting on his sword and flying all the way back to Lanling tonight. Right now.
“I will never take advantage of my place at your side ever again,” Wei Wuxian promised with a level of sincerity Jin Ling hadn’t heard from him since Guanyin Temple.
“As if I don’t know what your promises mean,” Jiujiu…pouted?
“Jiang Cheeeeng,” Wei Wuxian wheedled, “I told you already. We’ll share our three bows. I’ll take responsibility! Of course I need to take care of you and our little jiaozi.”
“Ugh, get off me!” Jiujiu growled, “As if I don’t have enough back pain from all the desk work I’m stuck doing now. I haven’t swung Sandu for two weeks!”
“Ah, Jiang Cheng! You should’ve told me! Here, I can help massage!”
Jiujiu squawked and turned around and there was a sudden thud as they both fell into the room and, thankfully, out of sight.
Jin Ling gagged once more before turning back down the path to his own quarters, thoroughly disgusted and fully certain of his belief that this whole thing was all Wei Wuxian’s fault.
Still, he might let him live a bit longer.
Jiujiu would need the help, after all.